Werewolves, Abductions and Witches, Oh My!: A Review of King Falls AM

To truly understand my journey with this podcast (because it has been a journey), you first need to understand that this article started its life in the Salt Mine. I began listening to this podcast back in 2015-16 and was ultimately betrayed by the wait in between episodes and things that were happening on the show that I just wasn’t a fan of. I needed fodder for a new Salt Mines article, so I began relistening to take fresh notes. 

Instead? I ended up falling in love with it. So much so that I now support them on Patreon and follow the entire cast on Twitter. I’ve also joined the Discord channel to connect with other fans of the show and have participated in precisely one live listen. It was for episode 100, which was absolutely nuts (the chat channel and the episode). 

But that’s getting ahead of myself a bit. King Falls AM is a podcast about a late night talk radio show in a quiet mountain town. It’s about best friends, alien abductions, sightings of a green glowing Jesus, werewolf puppies, and a racist witch with a spell that makes everyone sing (episode 40, it’s always downloaded on my phone and ready for a relisten). The two main characters are Ben and Sammy, two dudes that grow rather quickly from new colleagues to best friends to brothers to something still platonic but way beyond that now. 

On the first episode of their new radio show, which also happens to be the first episode of the podcast, a caller is abducted, seemingly by an alien spaceship, while on the air with them. This abduction becomes a central plot point for the story moving forward, as this isn’t the last time someone in the town is taken and there’s some question as to who might actually be behind it. 

I love the radio format for storytelling. It gives a lot of room for all of the quirky townspeople to call in about the topic of the day, whether it’s abductions, the mayoral race (it was very contentious), or ghost sightings in the local library. And the fact that it’s a radio call in gives an endless supply of characters. Standout favorites include Mary Jensen, the wife of the man abducted in the first episode, and Deputy Troy Krieghauser, who sounds like a country bumpkin but in the best possible way.

The show also makes it a point to be inclusive of a lot of different walks of life. There are main characters in the show in the LGBTQA community, and in later episodes they start including “guys, gals, and nonbinary pals” in their banter, with an actual conversation between Ben and Sammy about why that distinction is important. 

They also take a huge stab at toxic masculinity in interesting ways. Ben and Sammy, having blown straight past best friends to wherever they are now, are never afraid to say, “I love you” when the situation calls for it, on air and for everyone to hear. They’re beautiful, supportive platonic life-mates and the world is a better place for that kind of relationship being front and center on a podcast. 

The voice acting is incredible. Sammy is voiced by one of the creators and writers of the show, Kyle Brown, who will tell you he isn’t a real actor but that’s a lie. He’s got an easy, natural quality to his reading of the show that I enjoy a lot. The other creator and writer, Eric Kimelton, voices Deputy Troy, who he’s said he’d love to kill off but remains an audience favorite. About a dozen characters are voiced by the same actor, Trent Shumway, which is still mind boggling to me four years into the show. I would be here all day naming my favorites, just know there isn’t a weakest link among them. 

The reason I stopped listening to the show in the first place is a plot point that is still an issue when I relisten (because I’ve done it several times through now), but it’s easier to get through knowing the resolution, and not having to wait two weeks between episodes to find out when a certain character pulls their head out of their ass helps. 

The problem that remains, unfortunately, is Ben. 

I’ve already talked about Ben as a character that I love, so please don’t get me wrong. Ben is a beautiful, solid character in so very many ways, but the way he relates to Emily, the town librarian he has a crush on, is somewhat problematic and has been from the beginning. She very rightly calls him on his bullshit on several occasions and while he does seem to learn some lessons, there’s still room for improvement 100 episodes into the show, though a lot of their interactions got so much better in later episodes. The first 15 minutes or so of episode 82 “Pretty Little Hate Machine,” are my favorite 15 minutes of the entire show, and it’s basically just a filler scene of Emily and Sammy poking fun at Ben. It’s a truly beautiful character building moment that I think was missing from the early episodes, and I hope we see more of that moving forward. 

Emily in general is a conundrum for me. I love the character, the witty, resourceful bookworm who isn’t afraid to stand up for herself, while I don’t love the way a lot of the characters interact with her. But a lot of the issues I had with Emily in the early episodes of the show were resolved in a recasting (and what seems to be a slight reworking of the show in general) that happened during a six month hiatus from May 2018 to December 2018. The show had been running non-stop since it began in 2015, and the people making the show, who have full time jobs in LA on top of writing, producing, and acting in the podcast, needed a break, and the show is much better for it. The episodes released in the last year are truly a step above what they’d been doing, and they’d already been putting out truly quality content. 

If a show that’s sort of Twin Peaks and sort of The X-Files and sort of like listening to the radio bits of Frasier sounds at all interesting to you, you should really give this a try. And if you like what you’re hearing, supporting them on Patreon gets you access to Beyond the Falls, which is a making-of podcast that talks about each episode and contains Noah James, voice actor for Ben, channeling some truly interesting stuff in a Lipton Lightning Round of questions. 

The show just celebrated episode 100 and have gone on another hiatus to catch up on planning and writing new episodes, so now is the perfect time to dive in!